TOYS 'R US and the Doll Festival

Here is a from a recent visit to Toys R Us in a nearby city. Yup, the same Toys R Us that we have in the states. We went just to poke around. March 3-5 is a festival called Hinamatsuri. And since March is almost here they were selling traditional Japanese doll sets. The prices can range from a few dollars to thousands.
Steph is standing in front of a doll set that costs $550.00.

From Wikipedia: Hinamatsuri (click for more info) or Girls' Day, (雛祭, ひなまつり;) is the Doll Festival in Japan. On the 3rd of March, people display dolls (雛人形; hinaningyō) dressed in old-style kimonos. Tiered platforms with red cloth (hi-mousen, 緋毛氈) are used to display a set of dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress.

Click here to listen to the Hinamatsuri song!

These dolls are not the norm. Because there is such a love for Dinsey and Hello Kitty here, they have been integrated into everything! This was the first time that we saw dolls of Cinderella and Prince Charming! I think that one is definately the most wild! They aren't even dressed in Japanese attire! Funny huh?

Click here to get a nice explaination of Hinamatsuri from Kids Web Japan

The Beer Robot

Steph and I were in a grocery store today and saw a beer display that advertised that Asahi beer company would be holding a drawing for 18 lucky people to receive a beer robot that will cool and pour your beer. Of course, all those that want a shot at the 18 "beer-bots" have to collect 50 stickers from beer cans and mail them in to Asahi. Well after some web searching...

Click here to see the "BEER-BOT" in action!!!


In the words of Homer Simpson from the episode where the Simpsons visit Japan: "They're light years ahead of us!"

Honored

These were made by the students that will graduate from Setamai Kindergarten this year. Double-click the images for a larger view.

Where We Live & Satellite Pics!

Hey everybody,...this is Gabe. I just thought I'd let ya'll get a more conceptual idea of where we live. When you click on the link below, you can see that our town Sumita 住田町 is smack-dab in the middle of the page. But, the cool thing is that you can zoom in and out on the map using the buttons to the right side of the page and you can also see what a satellite view looks like by clicking the buttons on the upper right of the screen. Spooky!
Google Maps is really cool. After you check-out our home, type in your own address. You can't see our house on google maps, but you may really be suprised because the satellite pics of the USA are really detailed. We could see Sixto and Heather's house pretty well and we could see Seth and Melanie's house in Seattle as though we were flyin' about 100ft. above it... Check it out:
Click here to see our town on google maps

Click here to look at your own house on google maps

Valentine's Day

Hey everybody! This is Steph. The weather has finally started to warm up here! Thank goodness! The snow has started melting and I am praying that my snow shoveling days are over! Coming from Texas I never had to shovel snow until moving here to Japan. I used muscles that I didn't even know I had! Wow! Anyways...just wanted to post a new pic.
Gabe took me out to eat for Valentine's Day last night. We went to a yakiniku (yah-key-nee-koo) restauraunt. Yakiniku is the Japanese version of Korean BBQ. It's a really cool way too eat. You order meat and veggies and then you grill it yourself over hot coals. It is so delicious! We love it. In this picture I am grinding sesame seeds to use in a dipping sauce. The gold ring in the middle is the grill. They bring hot coals to the table after you order and then put the grill on top. It is really nice in this winter weather to warm yourself by the fire! Anyways, it was a nice evening out. There were no large crowds out for Valentine's dinner like in the States. Actually, in Japan, Valentine's Day is a day for women to give chocolates or other gifts (chocolate is the most popular) to men. There is a seperate holiday called White Day, where the men give chocolates to the women who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day. Different huh? So, it was the first time that we went out on Valentine's Day and didn't have to wait 2 hours to get a table!
To see a few pictures of a great yakiniku restauarant chain that is here in Japan and in America click here. If you come to visit we will definately have to go out for a yakiniku night!
Okay,... if you want to practice making yakiniku before you come to Japan, go to this little game here and see how much yakiniku you can cook and put in the dipping sauce!

The Yoshida's

Hey Everybody, I just wanted to post this pic of our friends from church. This was taken last June and just looking at makes me feel warm!
From left to right you can see Mrs Yoshida, So-san (from China), Rev. Yoshida, Steph and Oh-san (also from China). We are actually unsure of the spelling of their names as it is almost impossible for Japanese or Americans to pronounce---so, they just go by names that are easy to say in Japanese. We recently found out that Rev. Yoshida is going to retire in March after 40 years of ministry. We really have been blessed by all the lives you see in this picture.